I am sewing

Just not for myself, and not much that is brand new.

But I did make a dress for my buddy Lil’E this week.

It was a spur-of-the-moment decision. I’d purchased this pattern last year with plans to make a dress for her out of it, but it was so cold, and I was a little busy so I never got around to it. On Sunday, after several very warm days, I was talking to E and she said to me that sometimes it’s so hot that it just isn’t right to have to wear a t-shirt. I agreed and mentioned that dresses were often cooler than t-shirts. And that’s when I remembered that I had a warm-weather dress pattern for her. So I found (not too hard after the recent room clean) it and showed it to her. It only took a yard of fabric, had 4 total pattern pieces (one of which was for the elastic) and seemed very easy. So I pulled out a number of fabrics and let her shop. She weighed the merits of many, discounted several because she didn’t have shoes to match, and finally settled on this fabric. I cut a yard off the bolt, threw it in the wash, and the next night spent less than three hours cutting out pieces, pinning, sewing, fitting, and finishing. It was a great fast project.

Now this dress is backless which means it is not appropriate for school and I wanted to make that clear while I was fitting her. She rolled her eyes and gave me an exasperated “I know”. But honestly I was a little worried that my modest friend would love it while standing in my sewing room, but be way too afraid to wear it out. So I asked her if I could take a photo of her wearing the dress to put on my website. “Oh yeah, you’re like my mom. You gotta show everyone you know everything you do. I understand.” (uh oh!) But then we had a fashion show where I took about 100 photos and she looked at them on the computer in stages and kept deciding what she wanted the next shot to be. I told her I would adjust it so it didn’t look quite as orange and lighten it up a little and she refused. I’m not sure why felt it was inappropriate, but I’m honoring her wishes.

I think there will be more dress-making in my future. And honestly, it is a LOT more fun to sew for other people than it is to sew for myself.

Comments

Which pattern is this, if you don’t mind me asking? I would love to make a toddler version and/or hang on to this pattern for future use… :)